<font color="tan">Captain Liliana Bannister</font>
April 04, 2016 2:49 PM
Sorting out the Pecari Quidditch Team. (Tag: Pecari Team) by <font color="tan">Captain Liliana Bannister</font>
It had been a rather long summer. Liliana had written many letters to her Assistant Captain and quite probably her best friend at Sonora after Atlas and Duncan. After the the awards section of the yearbook had labelled Jamie Park and the rest of the Pecari Quidditch Team to be in the worst enemies category, she had been determined to set things to right. For starters she had spent a few minutes each day practising calling him by his first name and at this point she was able to do so without stuttering or anything. She was quite proud of herself though worried that perhaps she had talked herself into remembering that he was less egotistical than he really was.Upon disembarking from the wagon, she left her belongings in the pile with everyone else’s things as usual though she did take her Quidditch kit and broom up to her room with her, wanting to arrange at least those things nicely before the prairie elves went through it. Those were among her most precious belongings and besides, she had plans to spend the afternoon with the other members of the Quidditch team. She had informed all the other members by letter in the past few weeks that they would be meeting during their free time, allowing them all an hour to get settled in their rooms and catch up with their friends before asking them to meet her on the Quidditch Pitch.
Liliana herself took that time to find a good place for her Quidditch kit and magically put a couple hangers on the wall so that when she wasn’t using her broom she could keep it off the floor, taking care not to use a permanent sticking charm so that the prairie elves wouldn’t complain when she eventually moved on from the dorms.
As she walked down to Cascade Hall to fulfill her prefect duties for rest of the hour, she sighed happily. It was her last year at Sonora. She did have RATS to worry about, but she didn’t feel as nervous for them has she had a few years previous for the CATS. In the past two years she had really made up for her earlier lackluster attempts at school and was somehow balancing Quidditch, her school work, her extra studying, and her prefect duties without quite losing it (likely due to the personal stress relief she and Theodore engaged in when they could fit it into their schedules), and so she was really looking forward to her last year there.
It was kind of funny, really, to think about how much things had changed in her six years at the American school. She had found good people to surround herself with and actually ended up being happier there than she thought she’d ever have been at Hogwarts. Something about the little school had captured her heart and she didn’t think she’d have been able to cope with a bigger class.
Once in the hall, she gave Theodore a saucy smile and found herself a good spot to settle down. By and by Joella joined her and they chatted happily, catching up about their summers (Liliana had a couple juicy stories to tell her younger friend about the summers in the Southern French dunes and encouraged the younger witch to perhaps spend some time there her next summer) until it was time to head over to the Pitch with some snacks in a basket that she’d asked the prairie elves to set aside especially for the team. As usual she had allotted her and Joella enough time to get there before everyone else and they got there twenty minutes before the rest of the group.
She pulled a couple hair ties from her pocket and used her improved transfiguration skills to enlarge and change the soft fabric into larger plastic hoops, instructing Joella to cut and lay out string (about two feet of string per team member) on the ground before going to retrieve a couple of Quaffles from the broom shed. Once everyone arrived, Liliana explained what was going on since in her letter she had simply told them all to be at the Pitch at three o’clock sharp if they wanted to be considered for the team that year.
“I’m sure all of you saw the worst enemies award that was put in the yearbook last year. I’m pretty incensed about that. I know we haven’t always gotten along, but we are still a team and none of us should be singled out like that. Despite our differences we cannot allow our team to be broken apart and pitted against each other. I’m really sorry for my part in what led to that award being given to us, Jamie,” —it was the first time she had ever called him that during practise or any team even and she was sure some of the team members might have been surprised— “But this year we are all going to work really hard to reverse that gossip.
“So, in that spirit, Joella and I have organised a couple of fun activities for us all to do. We’ll start by sharing about our summers and then,” she walked around to stand by the Quaffles. “We’ll pair up, pick somone who you speak less to than some of the others, and hold the Quaffles between our stomachs. I’ll blow the whistle and the point is to run from this line—” she drew a magical red line on the Pitch with her wand. “—to this line—” she traced a blue line some distance away “—as fast as you can without dropping the Quaffle. If it drops you guys have to come back to the starting line and re-do it. Then...”
She walked around to the rest of the activities, explaining that the hoops would serve as a similar game where two team members had to get inside the hoop and run between the two lines without holding the hoop up but also not letting it fall from around their waist, that the strings were meant to tie around their wrists and loop around each other and then all get untangled and standing separately without untying the knots, that they would then re-use the hoops, linking hands and passing them from one end to the other.
There were other games such as the Chocolate River (where the whole team had to go from the red line to the blue line, only stepping on paper “cauldron cakes” and being constantly in contact with each other, the catch being that there were less paper “cauldron cakes” than team members and if they lost hold of someone that someone would be swept down the river and they would have to start over again or if they left a “cauldron cake” without someone on it, it would be swept down the river and they would have to start over again.
“Sound good?” she asked, reaching up to make sure her bun was tightly in place—the sun was pretty warm as it was early September, and she didn’t want her long hair in her way while they did these activities. She had opted for a bun instead of her usual sporting braid since she felt that as a seventeen year old she was getting a little too old for plaits. “Let’s get started then!”
Subthreads: I'm innocent! by Ben Pierce with Sammy Meeks
You've got to be kidding me by Jamie Park
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<font color="tan">Captain Liliana Bannister</font>
Sorting out the Pecari Quidditch Team. (Tag: Pecari Team)
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<font color="tan">Captain Liliana Bannister</font>
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Ben Pierce
April 05, 2016 2:32 PM
I'm innocent! by Ben Pierce
Ben had seen the Worst Enemies award page in the yearbook but hadn't given it much notice. As the new guy on the team, he'd had little direct contact with Pecari's established Seeker. He didn't see the guy in class, Jamie wasn't one of the Pecari players in his Challenge team, and Ben's position didn't have much cause to work too closely with the seeker during practices. So he felt the award was either erroneous or didn't apply to him specifically and he'd promptly forgotten about it.Apparently not so their fearless captain.
When he'd gotten the summons, he'd been a little surprised, and then pleased that his team was so dedicated they started practices even before the Opening Feast. Being only a second year, he'd had no reason to suspect the team hadn't met while he'd been having his orientation last year, but it soon became apparent this was not just a normal pre-Feast Pecari practice.
He supposed he was glad that she took it seriously that the team needed to work and be seen as a cohesive unit and mend any fissures the opposing teams could take advantage of, but he also kind of felt that that he was getting in trouble for something he'd had no part in. He had no ill-will toward Jamie or anyone else on the team, and even if he did, he knew not to let it become an issue on the field. That was teamwork 101.
Still, the activities Liliana was proposing did sound fun and interesting.
"Hi," Ben began when it was his turn to tell about his summer, "I had a pretty normal summer. Joined a summer league to play baseball. Visited my great aunt a few times to get out of Boston so I could practice with my broom. Caught up with my muggle friends. Played a few pick up soccer games. Went swimming when I could. Hiked the freedom trail a few times. It was good." Best of all, he'd made it through the summer without needing to wear anything fancier than shorts, so that was always a win.
"Want to belly bounce with me?" he asked one of the older girls when the team finished talking summers and began sorting themselves out into pairs for the first activity. Then he flushed red because that had not sounded so flirtatious when he'd composed the sentence in his head, but now that it was out there, and directed at a girl, his fledgling puberty hormones interpreted it differently than the language center in his brain had. "Sorry, I mean, that is, wanna-be-partners?" he rephrased, speaking all in a rush out of embarrassment.
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Ben Pierce
I'm innocent!
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Ben Pierce
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Jamie Park
April 08, 2016 4:57 AM
You've got to be kidding me by Jamie Park
Jamie swaggered onto the pitch at 3.05, figuring that Liliana was just getting into some obsessive “last year as captain” panic mode. She was pretty obsessive most of the time, and - whilst Jamie liked winning - he really wasn’t up for a year of dawn practises and who knew what else. He had CATS this year. He had to study without looking like he was actually studying.The last thing he expected was for him to be the centre of the meeting (an unusual lack of assumption for him). The yearbook? They were here because of the yearbook?. She had to be kidding. Sure, he’d been a bit surprised by the award between him and the rest of the team, because he was their star player, their super Seeker… They were meant to love him, and - aside from the odd chastising he got, thanks to Liliana having no sense of fun - he had assumed they did. However, he’d been quick to ascribe the award to jealousy, or just people messing. After all, who took the yearbook seriously? Apparently Liliana did. She had a speech and everything. It was almost funny, and Jamie did his best to keep the smile pushed down so that he could say a few words in return.
“Thanks, Liliana,” he said seriously, when she’d finished her piece, “I mean… It was hurtful to see that,” he ‘admitted,’ if she was willing to hand him a sympathy card, he was going to milk it for all it was worth, “but I’m glad you want to make things right, and I’m happy for it to just be put behind us,” he said graciously.
As it turned out though, Liliana wasn’t done there. She had a whole bunch of lame-ass team-building up her sleeve. Jamie groaned internally, wondering whether to admit that he didn’t give a toss about the stupid yearbook if it would get them out of doing this. He even suspected Liliana might be doing this on purpose to punish him, rather than make amends. But if he called her out on it, she might still make them do all this crap anyway, and he’d lose the leverage he’d just gained over her. He guessed, for now, he’d have to play happy families and sing kumbuyah with the rest of the team. This was so lame.
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Jamie Park
You've got to be kidding me
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Jamie Park
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Sammy Meeks
April 11, 2016 2:26 AM
I'm not, apparently! by Sammy Meeks
After spending some time with her buds, Sammy had to say goodbye and head to the Pitch to meet up with the Pecari Quidditch team. It was a little sad, but not too much, because she would see them all again later and for the whole school year, plus she now got to go hang out with her sport friends. She liked most of them well enough, although she wasn’t overly fond of Jamie Park. He was a bit too cocky in her opinion, but they were teammates, so it was whatever.She had definitely seen the yearbook last year, although she hadn’t thought too much about the Worst Enemies thing. Sammy was pretty sure most people just screwed around with their votes (that was the only way Gia and Barnaby Pye had ever been lumped in as a couple, it had to be), so it didn’t really register as much of anything. But apparently Cap’n Liliana felt otherwise, as she revealed this meeting to be an intervention on that very topic.
Oh my God, Sammy thought to herself in horror. I’m part of a problem! The fourth year immediately flushed with guilt; how had she done this?! And--AW!--Jamie seemed really hurt when he talked about it! She sure felt like a horse’s patoot.
But the team building exercise Liliana mentioned sounded like genuine fun. She just had to get through everybody talking about their summers, which she was honestly pretty interested in, but it was kinda hard to pay attention when most people usually referred to their summers as “normal” and “not that exciting”, then explained mundane things like visiting family members. She tried to jazz it up a little bit on her turn. “My summer was the best!” She exclaimed. Sammy maintained that tone as she went on to talk about nothing special, but at least she made it fun to listen to. “I mostly played sports in my yard! Generally by myself or with my moms because I don’t really have friends and my brother was getting ready for college! And I got really sunburned! But look how tan I am! Woo, summer!”
When it was time to split up, a smallish one called Ben asked her if she wanted to “belly bounce” with him, and she couldn’t help but laugh at how silly the phrasing sounded. He obviously noticed, as he tried to rephrase, sounded flustered with himself, but Sammy, evil thing that she was, laughed even harder. “Sorry,” she said once she had composed herself. “That was just too funny. Belly bouncing! I love it!” She flashed him a huge grin. “Sure, let’s be partners! You ready to get started?”
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Sammy Meeks
I'm not, apparently!
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Sammy Meeks
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Ben
April 15, 2016 11:30 AM
Idiocy and laughter by Ben
Ben continued to flush as Sammy burst out laughing. Okay, good point: she didn't think he was hitting on her. (Or at least, he hoped not, because if he had been trying to flirt, that would be an awful reaction to get.). Bad point: he was an idiot.Okay, good point again: she thought he was hilarious and wanted to be partners in spite of his idiocy.
"Yes!" he agreed, perhaps a bit too eagerly, "Let's get started!" The sooner they were actually doing the activity, the sooner they could start forgetting he was an idiot.
But once had fetched a ball and held it up to his stomach, and looked at Sammy for her to join him, he suddenly realized he was hilarious, too, (or maybe the activity was just hilarious) but either way he actually fell down laughing.
"Sorry," he gasped, getting back up to his feet, and recovering the ball, "it's just," he chortle-snorted, "Belly-bounce!" He laughed some more then forced a calm on himself enough to say, "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do this now!" He covered his mouth with a hand to physically hold in more laughter.
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Ben
Idiocy and laughter
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Ben
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